Pride and prejudice: young Finnish-Russian dual citizens and perceptions of Russia

ABSTRACT

Finnish-Russian dual citizens are the largest group of multiple citizens in Finland. Building on thematic interviews and drawing on Sara Ahmed’s work on cultural politics of emotions, this paper examines how emotions related to Russia and Russianness influence the way young Finnish-Russian dual citizens perceive their status and opportunities in Finland. The findings imply that emotions indeed play a significant role in shaping the way the young dual citizens use their citizenships. Due to the negative emotions related to Russia, many dual citizens tend to conceal or control their Russianness in public spaces. As a result, dual citizens’ Russianness is increasingly becoming a private matter, whereas in the public sphere they aim at improving their status by trying to pass or act as Finns. Conceptually, this paper draws attention to the momentary and contextual nature of belonging. Depending on the context, an individual’s sense of belonging can rapidly change from feeling at home to feeling out of place.

KEYWORDS:

• Dual citizenship
• youth
• Finland
• Russia
• emotions
• Goffman
• Ahmed
• affective economy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Names of the research participants are anonymized.

2. The survey respondents were selected through a random sample (population register center) of 800 Finnish-Russian dual citizens currently residing in Finland. This represents 14% of the whole population (N = 5746). The survey was available in Finnish and in Russian, and overall 194 young dual citizens completed it. Although the number of respondents (24% of the sample) was not as high as hoped, it is in line with recent national youth surveys, and more importantly, it represents the sample well in terms of gender, age and place of residence of the participants. The survey used both structured questions on nominal and Likert scales, as well as open-ended questions. These questions explored participants’ life trajectories and sociodemographic background, as well as their relationship to and identification with Finland, Russia and especially the dual citizenship. Additionally, the survey also examined participants’ societal and political interests, use of media, transnational participation and their experiences of discrimination in Finland and in Russia. This paper focuses mostly on questions relating to participants’ perception of Russia and their identification with different aspects of Russianness.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marko Kananen

Dr. Marko Kananen is senior researcher at Juvenia – Youth research and development centre, South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences.

Jussi Ronkainen

Dr. Jussi Ronkainen is director at Juvenia – Youth research and development centre, South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences.

Kari Saari

Dr. Kari Saari is researcher at Juvenia – Youth research and development centre, South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences.